VERTIV | The Perfect Pitch (ENG)

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]From global trends to local reality, how is Africa positioning itself in the AI era? We'll explain it all here live from GITEX Africa 2026. Welcome to the tips perfect pitch.

[00:00:19]Thanks for joining us here on set. Alex Brew, vice president, regional sales for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Thanks to be here, Alex.

[00:00:27]>> Pleasure to be here. Thank you. And Wojciech Piorko, managing director for Africa. Thanks to be here.

[00:00:33]Pleasure to be here. Thank you. Is is is it your first time here at GITEX, guys?

[00:00:38]Alex? It's my first time at uh GITEX Africa, yeah.

[00:00:40]>> GITEX Africa, first time. GITEX after in total. GITEX globally, not not not No, no, we're in we're in Dubai in October, wasn't it? So, we're on the circuit.

[00:00:50]We're officially on the circuit.

[00:00:51]>> think it's not the last one.

[00:00:53]I imagine so.

[00:00:54]Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure for applications in data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments. What does all this really mean for organizations today, Alex?

[00:01:09]I think it's about understanding that organizations, enterprises, now stand to go through a rapid period of transformation in terms of AI adoption and what that means for their businesses from a productivity perspective, from a entrepreneurial perspective. There's so many different angles. But, the backbone of AI is really where Vertiv sits. AI is about compute, enhanced compute at the end of the day, creating intelligence that can be used to to serve us in many different ways. And that compute requires an infrastructure platform to support it. And that is fundamentally where where Vertiv exists. We provide the power train, the thermal chain, and a holistic suite of system level solutions and architectures basically that support the GPU IT architecture that's being deployed to deliver AI to to the world. Really for speed at scale.

[00:02:03]Uh currently uh Vertiv is a more than a $10 billion company with 34,000 employees globally.

[00:02:11]Uh your global headquarters are in Westerville.

[00:02:13]Uh it's in Ohio in in the US, but you operate across uh 30 uh manufacturing locations globally serving more than I think 130 countries.

[00:02:25]Is it that? Uh that's huge. That's really huge, but but this is very important. You're also very grounded locally in Africa, Vertiv.

[00:02:33]>> Absolutely. As you said, Vertiv has a global uh reach, but locally in in Africa, we have a very strong long-term presence. Currently, we're operating from five locations on the continent. On the continent, yes. Uh headquarters being in South Africa, Johannesburg, where my home is currently.

[00:02:54]>> Yeah. Uh we have offices in Nigeria, Kenya, uh Morocco, and uh Egypt.

[00:03:01]According to this reality, what are the current market's dynamics in Africa versus globally? Alex. I think that that's it's no it's it's no kind of uh how would I put it? Uh there's no hiding where the market has really accelerated over the last couple of years, but now we see that acceleration happening globally and at scale. I think Africa's value proposition when it comes to AI is strengthening uh you know, day by day, week by week, month by month, and a huge amount of that is around power availability, improved connectivity, um the the cheap power aspect of this.

[00:03:38]AI applications are different compared to traditional data centers, uh and they mean that, you know, in some res in some instances, they can be uh you know, less resilient. The applications that they're running don't need to necessarily conform to traditional design standards, which are very uh how can I put it Um inherently critical and have a lot of redundant power and everything else and and so Africa really has a unique place I think that where it can start and now offer that to serve not just its own continent from a sovereign perspective but also outsourcing AI as a product to other users based on deployments that are coming here. Yeah, so you you you you prove that in Africa is it really that? Adding to that if you look at at Africa as a continent it's it's full of young entrepreneurial Very talented people.

[00:04:27]data hungry population and if I look at the capacity I think we are reaching the limit so there is a huge opportunity in in enabling this data hungry population through investments in data centers. Is the current pace of technological change forcing you to rethink your uh infrastructure approach?

[00:04:51]So so rethink rethink? Yes, I suppose you could call it that. I think the the point is that we are continuously having to innovate.

[00:05:01]So the first major you know infrastructure cycle refresh that we saw was the onset of liquid cooling at scale so AI servers are consuming a higher amounts of power which means you need liquid cooling to help manage the heat loads within those spaces and that's now being deployed at scale globally not just on Africa and but but but around the world and having to ready that technology set for that scale of deployment is something that we did very well and we kept ourselves ahead of the market in that space. Um but we're constantly having to innovate now in terms of how does the power train evolve what time of backup power sets do people want to be using what is the you know I suppose that the the the crux of what we're trying to achieve at the moment is enabling capacity deployments at scale. So the scale at which our is being delivered now into various parts of the world including Africa is is the likes of which we haven't seen before in terms of single site deployments and the speed at which people are looking to try and to stand up these facilities is, you know, a significant factor of reduction compared to traditional data center builds. So that's where we're working on platforms like Vertiv one core to prefab, to modularize, to be able to basically bring to market and improve the time to token of AI platforms faster than than than anyone else in the market. That's a core part of where our R&D focus is.

[00:06:19]There is no specificity in Africa. I think it's all the same on the continent. But it's >> It's It's fairly similar to to what's happening on on on the global scale.

[00:06:31]We have couple of very unique African challenges that are not that common outside of Africa. I mean, the usual suspect the power availability and stability. I mean, that brings another level of complexity to the whole data center built. We have skills that are not yet at that level that they need to be to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

[00:06:59]We have regulatory environment that is that varies from country to country.

[00:07:03]It's not one continent.

[00:07:05]>> harmonious or >> Absolutely. It's like 54 different types of regulatory environment. So it's it's very interesting and dynamic market.

[00:07:16]>> And it's quite challenging as well.

[00:07:18]Absolutely. And it speaks to the importance of that local presence, right? The local aspect of acting as that facilitator between the needs of one market versus the portfolio of a large global manufacturing company is so important, which is why we know we continue to invest in our people here.

[00:07:33]Absolutely and we to be honest with you, we we we know that we will never be able to do it on our own. Hence the local partnership that we are establishing.

[00:07:43]Uh local customer experience centers where we can educate, where we can provide trainings. That's very important part of the journey on African market.

[00:07:54]Talking about sustainability, what is Vertiv's stance on this on green IT?

[00:08:00]So, I think, you know, the public knowledge of the fact that data centers are an intensive energy consuming source is is never been more understood. The core of what Vertiv can offer in that space is to provide the most efficient infrastructure platforms to the market.

[00:08:21]And that's been a core of our value proposition, you know, across, you know, all of our products since their inception. Data center operators are inherently driven to reduce the running facility the running costs of their facilities anyway. And by virtue of that, they reduce the power consumption, which in effect can then make them more sustainable by in terms of practice.

[00:08:40]But, one of the things that we really look at is how do we champion data centers to be a more kind of holistic circular economic economy-led contributor to local societies. So, okay, perhaps a little bit less relevant in the African market, but we have how can I interface with district heating systems? For example, we do a lot of that in the Nordics. But, if we think about Africa, there's how can they interface with the grid? How can we provide and or make use of the energy reserves that exist within data centers, be it through a battery energy storage system or you know, existing power that they have occupied. Should be able to dynamically interface and offset to stabilize. So, there's a host of different things that we can do there.

[00:09:15]>> [laughter] >> This is my last question. What are the key highlights for Vertiv at GITEX Morocco here this year? And and how do they reflect the company's vision for a high infrastructure in in Africa?

[00:09:27]Alex I think let me let me start with very Morocco-related highlight. For personally, uh is the the new vision that was introduced recently by Moroccan government Morocco IA 2030 what's what's unique because you see a lot of those announcements across all Africa but what stands out for me specifically is the focus on education within the strategy and focus on job creation. Everyone speaks about AI is taking away jobs. We see clearly the path to introduce >> strain quarter of a million of new jobs in Morocco if we follow the the strategy of IA 2030 Morocco.

[00:10:15]Interesting Alex. Yeah I know I I think when we when as someone that attends a lot of you know exhibitions like this globally you get a real sense of where is that drive and passion to truly innovate and that entrepreneurial spirit and it is You feel it's it's fairly there's a fever here Yeah yeah yeah and and and and so that's incredibly exciting and with that typically tends to come you know a huge amount of market activity thereafter so >> this is not the last time I I I see you here on I think Africa. This concludes Vertiv's perfect pitch. Thank you very much Alex Brew Wojciech Piorko. What what we we should wish you for for 2026? Very very fast. Just nothing but continued success.

[00:10:55]Another Jitec's in Marrakech. Wow yeah I agree with you. Well then thanks a lot and all the best for Vertiv.

[00:11:01]>> Thank you. Thank you.